What the chart reveals is that spammers and virus writers can exploit unprotected computers anywhere in the world to send out their unwanted messages. |
What they did was not intentionally malicious. If anything, it was slightly inept. |
When I first entered the antivirus industry, updates were sent out on a 5.25-inch floppy disk. A lot has changed in that time. |
Worms and viruses are increasingly being written to steal confidential data from innocent people's computers, to hijack resources, or launch spam or denial-of-service attacks, |
You have to join MARA to get a sample. They'll share only with members of their club. |
You imagine that it would be used by jealous boyfriends, but it may also be used inside business. However, businesses themselves already employ a number of tools to monitor end user behavior on the desktop, so it could also be something that companies potentially use themselves. |
You need to decide yourself on this one. The vulnerability is a serious problem -- we've seen over 200 different exploits -- but I don't think this is a time to panic. |